One of the great things about being involved in crypto is that there are always lots of ways to get free cryptocurrency coins and tokens. Of course you are not going to get rich purely by collecting freebies, but if you have a little bit of time to spare you can certain build up digital assets with some real value – and perhaps build your wealth further by holding onto the winners as they rise in price. Collecting free cryptocurrency is also a great way for beginners to get involved, to learn about and to experiment with different technologies, without having to risk any hard earned capital in these volatile markets.

In the early days getting free cryptocurrency was all about faucets – going to a website and claiming tiny amounts, usually of Bitcoin, every 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Although these faucet site’s still exist, there are now much better ways to go about getting free coins and tokens. Here are four which I think are the best ways to get free cryptocurrency in 2018.

Airdrops

An airdrop is when set proportion of a coin’s supply is given away for free. This is usually done by new crypto’s when they first launch, in order to generate a buzz and get an instant base of users, some of whom it is hoped will stick around for the long term.

There are various ways that airdrops can be run. Sometimes a new token will be given out to holders of an established coin; for example Ether holders are often sent new tokens in airdrop campaigns. So getting hold of some ether is probably a good idea if you are interested in airdrops. But you don’t necessarily need to have a ton of savings in ether to benefit from airdrops, as many campaigns will allow anybody to make a claim.

EarnDrop.Io and AirDropAlert.com are both handy sites which lists the latest and best upcoming opportunities, many of which only require you to register and provide a wallet address to claim your freebies.

User Rewards & Referrals

Sometimes you need to do a little bit more than just register, or have a wallet with some ether in it, to get your free coins.

There are a few different services, apps and networks which offer free cryptocurrency in return for being an active user, or for referring other users.

For example, Stox offers 50 tokens when you register an account on their web app. You can’t withdraw these tokens immediately, but you can use them to place bets on their prediction market platform. In the current beta phase these bets are risk free – you always get the coins you wager returned to your account – but if you place highly in the monthly leader boards you can win more tokens in prizes which you will be able to withdraw. They also have regular sponsored predictions which allow you to win tokens from other projects. This can all add up to a worthwhile amount considering how little time it takes to place a few predictions.

Playing Games

My favourite is Spells of Genesis. It is a collectible card battle game in which you can get plenty of free cards just by playing, without having to spend anything. When you level them up fully you can ‘blockchainize’ them, converting them into unique crypto assets on the Bitcoin blockchain which are transferred to your wallet. You can then trade these cards with other players, and the best ones can actually be fairly valuable.

ICO Bounties

Again this is somewhat related to the airdrop, which has become very popular in 2018, but bounties require you to do things like following social media accounts, writing articles, translating web content, wearing a special signature with an active forum account, and so on.

You can find a good list of current bounty opportunities here at ICO Bounty Hunt.